The one thing I really enjoyed about Gothic 2 was the difficulty. I like a game that gives me a good challenge. But as I mentioned, the graphics and controls turned me off. I understand the combat system, but I just felt the exploration controls were unnecessarily tedious. And I didn't care for the inventory management. I did most of the quests in the first major city, then decided I wasn't having any fun.
I think the reason I prefer Morrowind has to do with my experience with the series itself. I played Daggerfall 100+ hours, and loved it despite its failures. I despised Gothic 1, because the controls were even worse in the first one. So I was very much looking forward to Morrowind, while I was not very interested in Gothic 2. Still, I gave it a chance and admit it was a great improvement over the first one.
People have different tastes, oh well. Some people can't stand Morrowind's generic feel (in regards to NPCs at least), but it never bothered me. I was actually involved and interested in the plot.
I'm sure both games will be great, but the screenshots for Oblivion already own my soul...they look amazing.